Seven of Hearts
by Fearlesss
Summary: "I'll tell you what happened. We might have been brothers in the past, but now we're living the present." When Miwa is brought to New York with her father, Oroku Saki finds four mysterious turtles from the sewers. He raises them as his soldiers. But when the time comes, he orders them to do what he had failed; Get back his daughter. Rewritten version of my story;"Escaping the Past"
1. Chapter 1

**Here's a new version to "Escaping the Past", like I promised. I changed a couple of things which you'll notice as the story goes forward. The main thing that's different is.. a really big plot point actually, so I'm not going to tell :'D Thank you for all the "ETP" readers that decided to check this story out as well! Updates happen on Mondays (hopefully).**

 **Chapter 1**

 _"Me and my brothers. It has always been us against the world. The first few years – I don't remember much of it. Only the danger, the cold and the unfair. The hunger and hurt. The feeling of not belonging. It never bothered me. As long as my brothers could be safe. As long as I'd be with them, and as long as I managed to protect them. Nothing else mattered back then._

 _But then he appeared. From nowhere. He was not fazed when he spoke to us. He was scary – yes. But Mikey was sick. We had to take the deal or he'd die. The man offered to help us to keep our little family together, alive and healthy. He promised to make us strong._

 _The next years are a blur of training, rules and punishments. The next thing I actually remember is managing to impress our master by accidentally killing one of his soldiers in training. I apologized crying. He was impressed, and made me join in patrols and train harder so I could accomplish more. I was ten._

 _I stopped counting the people I had killed when I turned 15. Numbers had always been confusing to me, not so much to Donatello. He had achieved much with Baxter Stockman, experimenting and stuff. I don't really understand what they're always working on._

 _Me and Raphael were always distant. He was jealous that the master recognized my talent, and left his skills unnoticed. That was because his flaring temper. And he hesitates always before the killing blow. He has potential, but he doesn't work enough._

 _I am Oroku Leonardo, a proud member of the Footclan, run by Oroku Saki, my master and father."_

 **Foot HQ; Friday September 8th 2012, 8.20PM**

Walking the empty long hallways was stressful. He needed action, adrenaline, blood in his hands..

"Leonardo!" The dark blue masked turtle turned around, facing none other than Tigerclaw. A huge tiger mutant from some part of Japan. He was honorable warrior, and dangerous as well. Leonardo respected him, but was above him, which the tiger didn't find pleasing at all.

"I expect you to use more respectful tone when talking to the second in command." Leonardo's voice was firm, and extremely cold. The tiger didn't seem fazed, but continued in a calmer tone.

"Master Shredder requires your presence in his throne room. Your brothers are there as well."

Leonardo nodded quickly, before walking past the mutant, he, however turned around to look into Tigerclaw's yellow eyes. "You are beneath me, never forget that." He walked away, not letting the tiger to say anything in his defense.

When he arrived to the throne room, all his three brothers were there already.

Michelangelo - the youngest of the turtles. He used to be the goofball, now he was the one who couldn't stay focused to the simplest of tasks. Nevertheless, he was the fastest of the brothers. His skills in stealth weren't too bad either. His weapon of choice was nunchaku.

Donatello – second youngest. The inventor, as known as the nerd. He had the largest brain, at least he thought so. Yet, he used the simplest of weapons, a Bo staff.

Raphael – the volcano. You never knew when he'd explode, but it could happen at any second. You always needed to watch your back, and keep an eye out for his deadly sais. He was the strongest of the brothers, no doubt of that.

None of them liked him these days. So without glancing them for too long, Leonardo walked into the large room and bowed in front of his master. "Master Shredder, how can I serve you?" He immediately heard snickering behind him, and after turning to look at the direction of the noise, saw Raphael and Michelangelo looking at him with smug faces.

"Silence!" The Shredder roared, making the room go deadly quiet. "This is why you don't usually work together. You behave like bunch of children! But not with this mission. This is far too important, and you'll understand your match up soon enough. Leonardo, stand up."

The turtle in blue did as told, and rose to his feet rather suspiciously. He had nearly never worked with his brothers in the Foot. It was just too chaotic. None of them listened to him. Whenever he was in charge, he turned to a joke, and it made Leonardo's blood boil. He was the second in command, and he deserved to be respected. And feared.

"You know your brothers Leonardo. And I trust you to unite this team in a way it has never been united before. I trust in you – in your strength and capability to focus. And most importantly, to lead."

Leonardo bowed his head while he felt his brothers' gazes in his back – full of hatred. "And what Is this mission you want us to unite to?" Leonardo asked calmly, ignoring the hate.

"That is not currently important. First I want you to play as a team, to fill other's mistakes. You're opposites. They can be useful within battle, but also destroy eachother." The Shredder's cold gaze met Leonardo and Raphael. "In this following week, you'll learn to fight like you've fought together for years. Because to defeat this enemy, you need teamwork, stealth, planning and the ability to do the unexpected. I want you to be merciless. I know that some of you aren't yet familiar with taking a life, and that is a huge problem in this clan. It's a dog eat dog world out here, and if you don't kill, you'll get killed. If not by the enemy, by me. I'm expecting each one of you in the dojo at the morning exactly at 5am. Each second you're late, one push up. Am I making myself clear?"

"Yes master Shredder." All turtles answered in unison. They all left the room not saying a word or even looking at one another.

 **Unknown, Friday September 8th 2012, 9PM**

"Father please! It's only nine, and I studied the whole day like you asked me to. Trust me, I know every detail about the winter war between the Finns and the Soviet Union, can I please go..?" A dark haired girl begged. Her amber eyes shined brightly, while her father chuckled at her over the top begging.

"Alright then. Why did the Finns do so well?" The man tested her daughter who immediately raised her hand grinning. "The other side wasn't prepared to the extreme cold conditions and the Finns knew the land better than they did. Overall, Finland had better strategy. Can I please go now?"

The man chuckled, "alright then. But you have to be home by midnight, you know how the streets of New York get when the dark falls. Who are you going with again?" The girls smiled happily. "A couple of classmates of mine. We're planning on going to a movie, and then to eat somewhere. I'll be back before you even notice I'm gone!" She gave her father a tight hug, and put on her jacket to cover her from the cold autumn winds. "I'll see you in couple of hours. I have a key, so you can lock the door before you'll head to bed." She waved her hand before closing the door and stepping into the elevator. This was going to be awesome!

 **Central Park, 9.30PM**

She arrived just in time, running the last couple of steps over to her friends. "Karai! I'm so glad you made it!" A red haired girl said happily when she appeared from the shadows. "Me too April! It was close, my father really wanted to keep me inside. I managed to convince him though."

"Obviously." It was a new voice, this time a boy. A boy with a dark hair and a gap between his front teeth. "Hey Jones. Apparently you made it as well. What a shame." Karai grinned, and punched his shoulder lightly. "What can I say, you ruined a perfectly good date setting," he sighed while the girls looked at each other with tired expressions.

Chatting, they started to make their way to the movie theatre.

 **Foot HQ; Friday September 8th 2012, 10.50 PM**

Are you fucking kidding me. A mission with my brothers. No offence to them, but they grew up immature and naïve. I just can't really stand them anymore. Don't get me wrong, I'd protect them with my life, but rather not watching them in the process.

Leonardo paced around his small room. A small candle light gave the room some light and warmth, but It surely didn't give any to the young leader. Why should he listen to the insults, or take the questioning his orders. That's the reason master separated them in the first place, why in the fuck would he put them back together when the last time was so disastrous.

He sat down, and took a small pocked knife to his hand. It was sharp enough to cut a small wound to his wrist. He hadn't cut since last time leading his brothers, seemed fitting to do it once more. It wasn't terrible feeling, the blood slowly travelling with the rules of gravity before finally dripping to the ground. The mess was a pain to clean.

Leonardo put the blade away, and wiped the wound so it wouldn't bleed onto the floor any more than it had to. Then he took his journal.

"One becomes four once more."

It was all that he could write, that's all his empty head managed to sum up. Everything felt so confusing and unfair. He missed the simplicity of killing. He had no time for empty relationships or trying to keep his brothers in line. Footbots were easy to control and easy to give orders to. Unlike his annoying little brothers.

Leonardo closed the journal and stared at it for a couple of seconds. It held his thoughts and motives, written in ink to the blank pages. It held pain and suffering, but also moments of celebration and success. He opened the book once more, and started from the beginning. First pages were his brothers' birthdays. How Mikey learned that backflip he'd wanted to master for so long. How Donnie managed to make a potion that healed wounds in hours. And how Raph beat him in training. The father he went, the journal was more about him than his brothers. Leonardo frowned. That how it was supposed to be. He closed the book and threw it to his shelf, that mostly held martial art books in it.

A knock on his door.

Leonardo turned around, and opened the wooden door. His face switched first to confusion, and then annoyance when he saw Michelangelo standing there. He clearly noticed Leonardo's reaction, and stepped in before his blue banded brother could stop him or close the door.

"Leo, what's gotten into you?!" He hissed, and stared into his brother's deep blue eyes. Leonardo only stared back, and revealed his teeth to a deep growl. "What's gotten into me, eh? What's gotten into you three?! I don't know why Shredder thought it would be a good idea to team us up once more, but I'm against it. When I last time said that I never want to work with you again, I meant it. You three betrayed me, and made me look like an absolute fool in front of my master!"

Mikey stepped back, but didn't seem fazed by his brother's rather aggressive behavior. "That's how you remember it, but you can't put your own mistakes on us! If I remember correctly what happened before the incident, that was entirely your fault and lack of -..", his sentence was caught short by a hard slap to his cheek. Mikey's hand was on it immediately. It hadn't hurt too much, but it definitely stung a lot. "What happened to us, Leo?" He whispered. His voice wasn't sad, but somehow distant.

"I'll tell you what happened. We might have been brothers in the past, but now we're living the present. You three can fuck around all you want, but I'm not like you. I've always been better, that's why I am the second in command and not you. I don't need a team, especially not any of you. You take nothing seriously, and everything is a game to you. I'm tired of leading a team of misbehaving children."

"I would have never thought you'd be the one turning on us. You were the caring one, but now he's gotten to you. You've never been the same after the first kill. Leo, you're blind to..-", Leonardo growled deeply. "I see better than any of you three. I said it fifteen years ago, and I say it again; This is the only place for us to live. The only way. And if it means killing off some worthless human beings, then so be it."

He pushed Mikey out of the room, and left the orange banded turtle staring at him in the doorway. "We handle this mission," Leonardo hissed between his gritted teeth. "And then I never want to be in touch with any of you again."

 **Foot HQ; Friday September 8th 2012, 11.40 PM**

"I mean, can you believe it?" Mikey sighed deeply. He had walked immediately to the lab area, where Donatello spent every hour of his life.

"Actually, Michelangelo, I can. He has been a jerk to us for how many years now." He put the screwdriver down, and looked at his brother. "I don't understand why we should act any different towards him than what he is to us."

"Because he's still our brother for god's sake." Mikey groaned. "Shredder changed him, remember when he was just a little?" Donatello rolled his eyes. "I do, but it was a long time ago. People – and mutants – change Mikey. And in this case not for the better. After that night he just hasn't been the same. How long has it been now.. two years?"

"Two years, four months and 5 days dude."

"Right. What I'm trying to say, is that he decided his path, and that path sucks. But I couldn't care less about him right now. It his problem, not ours. Talking about 'ours', how's Raph? That wound he got from training at Wednesday was pretty ugly."

"Better I suppose. I saw him earlier today, and he wasn't happy about training with Leo either." Mikey sighed, and leant to his brother's working desk. Donnie frowned at this and pushed him softly away. "Don't. Any smallest reaction with this chemical could be disastrous. I'm still trying to understand how it actually works." He moved a clear bottle of green goo to another metal table, and lifted a clear glass cover on it. "Whatever you do, don't touch anything in here. All could be potentially dangerous."

"You got it boss." Mikey grinned.


	2. Chapter 2

**Ayumi Sakurai:** Thank you so much for your review, and I'm so happy you liked the previous story! There's definitely more bonding between them, but most likely the most of them will be though flashbacks. I actually made some changes to my plans because of your review gave me some ideas :D

 **Guest** : That's what I'm trying to do actually! I want to keep them as individuals, at least for now. It's not easy to form a group that holds hatred or dishonesty in it. They need to first drop all that, and remember who they were before all the negative emotions if that makes any sense. Thank you for your review!

Thanks to all the others who reviewed as well! Decided to upload this chapter today instead of Monday, since I'm pretty much done with chapter 3 as well. It had a lot of changes, and I actually moved former chapter 3 to 4 and put some story building as the chapter 3. I hope that you enjoy this chapter!

 **Chapter 2**

 **Foot HQ; Saturday September 9** **th** **2012, 6.30 AM**

"Michelangelo, your movements are sloppy. Donatello, too slow. Raphael, use your brain for once. Leonardo, -", Shredder's sound was cut off when the blue banded turtle swept his leg under Donatello's , and pinned the purple banded turtle to the ground. His deadly Katana blade was pressed against the skin of his neck, and both of them were panting heavily from the fight. Their eyes were locked, until Donatello shot a gaze at the others.

Raphael and Michelangelo had stopped their training fight as well to look at the other sparring match. Leonardo had practically swept the floor with both Mikey and Donnie, and now it would be Raphael's turn to face him. To be honest, he was excited to show Leo his place.

Leonardo moved away from Donatello. Raphael could see his smug smile, and the way he shot a glance at Donatello who was still laying on the ground. Probably recovering from the blows he had just received.

"Raphael, your turn." Shredder informed, but Raph could see it in his eyes. He was happy that Leo was beating his brothers easily, and was clearly proud of him. It made him growl. "You got it boss." He muttered. Leo's gonna get the beating of his life.

He took a stance, watching Leonardo's every move. Except that he didn't move. He just stood there that smug grin on his face, waiting for Raphael to go first. Fine. You get what you want, brother of mine.

Raphael jumped forward. He was quite fast for his size, and the combination of speed and strength was quite deadly. Especially when facing a smaller warrior like Leonardo.

Leonardo, however, was not to be underestimated. When Raphael landed, he had already dodged his attack by moving behind him. Raphael turned, but too late. He was behind him again. That fucker was teasing him. He didn't even try to attack, but to wear him out. Frowning, Raph closed his eyes. He could feel Leo moving, and timed his punch just right. His right fist send the leader of the group flying, and landing with a painful thud right onto his plastron.

Before he had time to get up, Raphael sat onto his shell, pressing him down with all his weight. The leader's breathing became raspy, like the weight on his back made it hard to do so.

"Raphael that is enough." Shredder remarked, and he stood back up. He looked at the leader on the ground, and watched him gasping for breath.

"Good match Leo." He held his hand down to his brother, who stared up at his. His blue eyes narrowed with emotion Raph couldn't quite give a name to, and he stood up on his own. "Fuck off." He mouthed to his red banded brother, and shoved him aside while walking back to the Shredder.

What a prick.

"You all need solo practice as well as team work skills. Especially you." The Shredder shot a cold gaze at Leonardo, who bowed his head. "Good job Raphael, you performed quite well today. And your brothers weren't that bad either. Perhaps I underestimated you three. Dismissed."

All four of them made their way to the exit, but Shredder's voice made them stop. "Do you think I'll let you go after a pathetic performance like that, second in command?"

Raphael practically saw Leo's blood freeze, and he watched as his brother made his way back to the dojo. The door closed behind him, and Raph could only guess what waited for the second in command.

 **Foot HQ; Saturday September 9** **th** **2012, 10.00 AM**

Leonardo returned from his morning training absolutely exhausted, and with numerous bleeding cuts. They didn't bother physically the young leader, but reflected his failures as a fighter. Facing the Shredder wasn't easy, but he should have done better.

He wrapped the new cuts – they weren't deep so he was able to do it alone – and put his katana blades to rest against the wall. He'd have a couple of hours before his next duties. Might as well take a nap.

 **Foot HQ; Sunday September 17** **th** **2012, 5.00 PM**

After a week of intense training, the turtles had again been called into the main room to hear about this mission. The rest of the week had gone smoothly. Leonardo had won most of the sparring matches with ease, but Raphael had been the close second. There was some serious rivalry between them, and it was easy to notice.

"This is something I have not told you. In fact, only my most trustful warriors know the my history, before New York. I had a loving wife, and a daughter. And a brother. But that brother became jealous of my happiness, and my accomplishments. He burnt down my house with my wife within it. He stole my child, a little girl who wasn't old enough to fight back. She was one when I lost her. Now she is 16. She's in New York, and I'm getting her back."

The turtles exchanged looks. "No disrespect, master, but how do you know she's here? Who is she with? Are you sure if she's even alive?" Raphael growled, and Leonardo elbowed him to his stomach.

"What he means – master – is that are you absolutely certain – ", and with one movement Leonardo was send flying across the room. He landed with a thud, and lifted his upper body from the floor using his hands. A groan escaped from his mouth, and his brothers could tell he hadn't expected the blow.

"You do not have the right to question me, kame." The Shredder growled furiously. "Especially after your poor performances in training in the last week. You will listen, and you will obey."

Leonardo bowed his head, stood up, and nodded. His face was emotionless when he walked back to his original spot.

"I want you to discover her location, and bring her to me."

Donatello stepped forward. "That's it? You had us trained for that? It's a girl, how hard can it be to capture her?"

"I wasn't expecting that kind of ignorance from you, Donatello. I have a reason to believe she has been trained to become a kunoichi."

None of the turtles seemed impressed. "She's still a girl." Raphael muttered quietly, and Donatello and Michelangelo snickered at his comment. Leonardo didn't feel threatened either. "Raphael is right. This mission is a walk in the park master. Consider it done."

"Very well. But your ignorance might destroy it."

 **Foot HQ; Sunday September 17** **th** **2012, 9.00 PM**

"And done. Getting her location was an absolute breeze. There's only one man in town named Hamato Yoshi, and she has a daughter. Strange that it doesn't give her name, but I'm certain that is the girl we're after."

All of the turtles had gathered around Donnie's computer to watch. The screen had a map of New York City, one building highlighted. "He lives there. I even managed to figure out his job, the hours he's not home and the building number."

"Good job." Leo muttered. "Let's check out the place tonight, so we know what we're up against.

And so they did. It was only a ten minute run to the building, and they stopped onto the rooftop of a high-rise right next to it.

"There." Donnie informed. "Sixth floor, that window right over there." His finger pointed to a open window. The ligh inside was open, revealing a girl writing something to a notebook. Her hair was long and black, and even this far was clear that she was partly Asian. It's like she felt their gazes, because she lifted her eyes from the notebook to look up. Thankfully it was impossible for her to see them in the dark.

Leo felt his heart skip a beat, and he took a step backwards. He knew this girl.

 **~ Two Years ago ~**

 _He was wearing sweatpants, hoodie and sunglasses so no one could recognize him as himself. Kind of sad, but that how it was. Master Shredder had ordered him to keep an eye on a couple of Foot newbies trying to earn a place in the clan. Their job was basically breaking into a museum, and stealing a priceless katana. Leo was waiting outside for them to deliver the weapon._

 _He had gotten stuck with them in the first place for trying to show off in training, resulting in humiliating himself and his master. This was a punishment of some sort._

 _He leaned to the brick wall bored, and watched his feet that had a pair of worn sneakers. Could those two hurry up, this was ridiculously.._

 _"_ _Hey there?" He lifted his gaze, and saw in front of her a girl about his age, maybe slightly younger. He blushed, and turned his head away. "What do you want?" His voice wasn't as confident as he would have liked it to be._

 _"_ _I was just wondering if you knew the way to Central Park? I'm kind of new around here, moved just recently.." She hadn't fazed from his quite harsh tone, and Leo smiled a bit. "Yeah, sure I know. Been living here my whole life. You're quite far from it tho, I don't think I can just explain." She looked slightly disappointed. "Thanks anyway", she sighed, and was about to turn away._

 _"_ _Perhaps I could walk you there?" He suggested rather smugly, and looked at her head perk up. "You would? That would be awesome!"_

 _"_ _Sure. Got nothing better to do."_

 _The walk was pretty nice actually. Turned out the had a lot in common. Leo was never the type to fall for a girl – especially human – but there was something different about this one for sure. At the end of the walk he dared to ask her phone number, and she happily gave it to him. They promised to meet up again soon._

 _At home, Leo got even worse punishment from Shredder for abandoning his mission, and getting the newbies arrested._

 _They met again only a week later. Then again. And again. Again. Again, again, again and again. At this point, the meetings were almost daily. They just loved each other's company, and had fun together. Just kids being kids. They trusted each other. So much, that it costed them a relationship._

 _"_ _You have three brothers?! That must be a blast", Miwa grinned teasing the turtle. "It's tough, but I'm actually not that much in touch with them anymore."_

 _"_ _Why?"_

 _"_ _There was…stuff between us. Distrust and other junk. You wouldn't understand."_

 _"_ _Why so? You know you can tell me anything."_

 _"_ _Trust me when I say: I can't."_

 _She moved a bit closer to him on the couch, and laid her head to his shoulder. He was shocked. "Miwa, we really shouldn't.."_

 _"_ _And why's that? We go great together. You're the first person in this city to accept me, and I love your company. But I don't understand the sunglasses, why you always wear them..?" She moved her arm to take them off, but Leo slapped her hand away. "I have to." He choked._

 _"_ _Please, I wouldn't run away from you, no matter what," she chuckled. "Besides, what's the worst that it could be."_

 _And he didn't have any time to react before her mouth was on his. His eyes widened in shock, but soon Leo embraced the touch he never could have before. Still, he felt like it it was fake. She didn't know everything, and she had the rights to. He gently broke the kiss, and removed the glasses and his hood._

 _Miwa backed away._

 _Her eyes were wide._

 _Fear._

 _Regret._

 _He disappeared from the window._

 _They never saw each other again._

 **~Present Day ~**

"You good, Leo?" Raph looked at his shaken brother.

"Peachy."

The answer confused all three of them, but they decided to ignore their brother's strange behavior. "So, oh fearless leader, what should we do?"

"It's easy to target her when she's alone at home." His heart was pounding. "Someone blocks the stairway, and she's got no escape routes. Easy." He didn't want to do this. New York had like a billion girls. Why her. Why the fuck did it need to be her. Out of all the girls. Fuck.

Other three nodded a bit. "When?" Michelangelo asked.

"Tomorrow, 6PM. There's no reason to move it any further." Leo felt like he was going to be sick.

 **Foot HQ; Monday September 18** **th** **2012, 2.00AM**

"Fuck." For the last 45 minutes he had been pacing around his room. Leo had punched the wall a couple of times, but no use. This girl had opened up to him, and he had opened up to her. He felt a connection, and he still did. They hadn't had any contact since the reveal, but that's because he had changed his number as quickly as possible. She had no way of reaching him. And now it had been almost year and half since they had last seen. Too soon.

He had no way of knowing how she actually felt. What if she still liked her? Fuck no. Probably hated is more like it. What if she became a soldier in the Footclan? What if they had to work together in the future? Thought made him nauseous. And now he needed to kidnap her. Hopefully she wouldn't recognize him. Who the fuck was he kidding, how many mutant turtles were in this city.

Leo rested his head against the wall, and sighed deeply. It just had to be done, eh?

This was a thing I changed from the last story. I wanted to make Leo softer than he was, and the easiest way was to make him know Miwa. Now he has this struggle of who to be loyal to. And how far is he willing to go to follow the Shredder. Because everyone who have read the last version, you know where this is going to :'D See you next week, and leave a review if you'd like!


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